Athletic shoes used in most contact sports must serve two distinct, but equally important functions. The first such function is to provide superior traction, permitting the user to start, run, change directions, and stop with equal ease. The second such function is to protect the weakest parts of a user's foot, the ankle in particular, form injuries due to impacting balls, pucks, other game apparatus and other players.
The subject invention provides superior traction characteristics by disposing transverse and longitudinal triangularly shaped gripping members about the bottom of the shoe, in four distinct areas thereon, such that transverse ribs in the front of the shoe point towards the rear, transverse ribs in the rear portion of the shoe point towards the front and transverse ribs on the inside half of the shoe point towards the center of the shoe.
Oppositely directed, transverse wedge or triangularly shaped ribs have been used in the past for improving traction. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,507,059--Vietas, a shoe is disclosed having wedge-shaped transverse elements in which the wedge-shaped elements on a portion of the sole point towards the rear of the shoe, and wedge-shaped elements on a portion of the heel point towards the front of the shoe. Vietas also discloses the use of longitudinal cut-out sections in the transverse wedges. The arrangement in Vietas of the wedge-shaped members is four alternating sections, as contrasted to the subject invention which has all transverse ribs in the sole section pointed to the rear and all transverse ribs in the heel of the shoe pointed towards the front. The extreme toe and heel areas of the Vietas patent do not have any wedge-shaped gripping members, while the subject invention places ribs particularly in these two areas. Vietas also shows no longitudinal wedge-shaped members, relying on the elements of an artificial turf to engage a series of slots through the transverse wedges on his shoe. The present invention is effective both on hard pavement and on artificial turf.
Schmadeke--U.S. Pat. No. 3,316,662 discloses half transverse triangularly shaped members and half longitudinal triangularly shaped members. In Schmadeke, however, the transverse members are located on the inside half of the shoe and the longitudinal members are located on the outside half of the shoe. When a person is running forward and wishes to turn, for instance, to the left, the person will plant his right foot, leaning particularly on the inside half thereof. Once the right foot is so planted, a quick move to the left is possible. In the Schmadeke configuration, forcefully planting the inside half of the foot will result in that foot slipping to the side since the longitudinal grippers will not be engaged with the ground. The present invention, in recognition of the fact that turning quickly relies on planting the inside of the foot places longitudinal members on the inside of the shoe. The transverse members in Schmadeke also all point towards the rear of the shoe, offering no members pointed towards the front, which would aid the wearer in stopping.
With regard to the second problem, providing impact protection for vulnerable parts of the foot, neither Vietas nor Schmadeke even suggest such protection.
Such protection is found, however, in ice hockey skates and ski boots. For example, Planert--U.S. Pat. No. 2,789,374 discloses an ice hockey skate shoe in which padding is provided for the ankle and the back of the leg. A tendon guard is disclosed which is attachable to an ice hockey shoe. However, the tendon guard is not located inside of the shoe and does not form a part thereof. In the present invention, foam padding is provided integrally with the shoe including sections around the ankle and up the back of the shoe, as well as under the tongue of the shoe.
Canfield--U.S. Pat. No. 3,529,386 discloses a pad for a ski boot and a means of retaining it in position. Padding in a ski boot serves a different function than to protect the user against impacts. The purpose of such padding, often molded to fit the foot of each user, prevents the foot from slipping around the inside of the boot. Form-fitted ski boots are quite expensive.
None of the foregoing patents nor any combination thereof disclose the unique tread design of the present invention and none of these references show the use of padding in a canvas-type shoe. It can be seen then, that not only does the present invention fulfill the needs of providing a shoe with superior traction characteristics and protection from impact upon vulnerable areas of the foot, but provides them in an inexpensive canvas-type shoe.